Late Nights
by Techno Skittles
Summary: Mercury doesn't like to sleep. Neo doesn't like to sleep alone.


_"So Dad would take the Sundays off,_  
 _And that's the only time he could ever get any rest,_  
 _And so, because we were loud on Sundays,_  
 _He'd make us hold his construction Boots over our head, till we'd sleep_  
 _And they were really heavy Boots and I'd used to say dad come on please_  
 _And like start crying, cause they're too heavy."_

* * *

Mercury often liked to keep late hours.

He didn't necessarily label himself as a night owl or anything of the sort, but more often than not he found himself still awake and alert on the brink of daybreak, sleep evading him another night. It wasn't much of a problem by his standards and it didn't really affect his daytime performance, so he didn't spend much time dwelling on his insomniac tendencies.

And he found great ways to pass the time, so it wasn't like he was just sitting there stubbornly refusing to sleep. Many nights he found himself in the designated area that was set aside for them to brush up on their sparring skills or just build upon their strength. Other nights he'd go for a stroll on the town, picking up some poor inebriated sap's wallet who was stumbling home from the one of the city bars or passed out in some alleyway.

Then there were the nights he spent with Neo. Those were rarer since the tri-colored girl, unlike him, actually needed her sleep. It wasn't often that she would have enough energy to stay up an entire night with him, let alone one where they were exerting themselves with back-to-back sessions.

As a result, he spent most of his sleepless nights alone.

Which was fine by him, in all honesty. Between Cinder's demands, Roman's stupidly smug face, and Emerald's peskiness, a few hours to himself each night was a blessing. A few hours where he didn't have to please anyone and could just be selfish for a little while.

It was right after he began his set of push-ups that he heard the creak of the door.

Tonight was not a night he would be spending totally alone, it seemed.

Softly, the door clicked shut and was soon followed by a hush shuffling of socked feet against the smooth concrete floor. Mercury paused in his fitness regime to lift his head to inspect the newcomer, relaxing a little when he saw the mess of pink and brown hair paired with fatigued pink eyes.

He resumed his push-ups. "Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"Shouldn't you?" Mercury could barely hear the underlying bite to her tone, but most of it was lost in the yawn that punctuated the sentence.

"I asked first." He held himself in the upright position, looking up to see bleary eyes looking down at him. "Besides, you know me. Not big on the sleep thing." Then he frowned, resting his weight on one of his hands so that the other could reach up to tug on the hem of the jacket she was wearing - _his_ jacket.

"You went in my room, didn't you?"

Neo huffed and pulled the jacket from his grip, stepping back to keep him from reaching for it again. "Yeah, so what?"

Mercury shook his head and returned to his push-ups. "Why have your own room if you're never going to sleep in it?"

"How much longer are you going to be?"

He shrugged his shoulders, although Neo probably wasn't able to pick up on the gesture given that they were moving up and down anyway. "All night, probably."

In a blur of motion she dropped down to her knees, sitting back on her socked feet and gripping the hem of his jacket in her fists. "Okay."

The next step would've been to argue with her, definitely, and convince her to back to bed (preferably her _own_ ), but as he had learned over the past few months of them dating (and just knowing Neo in general), it would be like talking to a brick wall. So he let her stay and watch him, knowing she'd tire soon enough and would carry herself off to sleep when she realized he didn't intend on leaving that room for the rest of the night.

It didn't take long.

He hadn't even gotten halfway through his set before her eyelids began to droop dangerously low and her body began to sway as she fought off sleep. He knew that in just a minute she would surrender to her needs and head back to bed, leaving him to his night of solitude.

It was a bit disconcerting when she didn't. Neo did eventually succumb to sleep, and in the timeframe that Mercury had set up mentally, but she didn't carry herself off to bed like he had imagined. Instead she fell on her side, soft breaths fanning from her parted lips and disturbing her frazzled strands of hair that fell across her face. He paused in his push-ups and stared at her for a moment, still processing what had just transpired before him.

The idiot had fallen asleep, right in front of him.

Neo lay there, curled on her side, socked feet tucked underneath her bottom, knees to her chest and the collar of his jacket covering the bottom half of her face. Her hair lay in a sprawled mess underneath her head and across her face, a few strands stuck to her lip. Swallowed in the folds of his jacket she looked so small, like a doll dressed up in regular-sized clothes.

Stopping in the middle of his workout, Mercury lifted himself to his feet with a sigh and walked over to his tiny, sleepy girlfriend. He stooped low to pick her up, gathering her thin form in his arms and cradling her to his chest, before straightening up and walking towards the exit of the room, intent to put her to bed his damn self.

The halls were dark and quiet, as to be expected in the middle of the night, so he ran into no opposition on his way to put her to bed. He navigated his way to the hall that housed all of their rooms quietly and with ease and in no time at all he ended up in front of the door to her room. Adjusting her carefully, Mercury freed one hand to open it, but paused when he heard a small mewl coupled with a pressure against his chest. He looked down to see Neo, still sound asleep, nuzzling her face into his chest.

Mercury normally wasn't one for sentiment or gushing, but _fuck_ if that wasn't sorta cute.

With a heavy sigh Mercury dropped the hand reaching for her doorknob and stepped away from her door, turning around and trekking further down the hall until he reached his own room. The door was already partially open, probably from Neo left it earlier, so all he had to do was toe it open in order to get inside.

The room was dark, but it was also mostly barren except for the essentials, so Mercury knew he wouldn't be tripping over anything as he made his way to his bed. His sheets were messy and tousled, a tiny indent in the mattress from where Neo had been laying earlier. He laid her down in that exact spot, gently resting her head down on the pillow before taking the blanket and covering her with it. Once sure that she was settled in he turned to leave, but was halted when he felt a tug on the bottom of his shirt. Looking over his shoulder he saw a small fist clutching the fabric of his shirt, attached to a thin arm which led back to a very sleepy illusionist.

"Stay."

Her voice was quiet, almost inaudible, and her eyes weren't entirely focused as she struggled to keep them open. Her grip on him wasn't great; he could pull away without so much as a flick of his wrist. And given her half-asleep state, she'd hardly remember this exchange come morning anyway. But, deciding to humor her, he reached down and gently tugged on her wrist in a silent motion to get her to relinquish her hold on him.

"No."

" _Stay,_ " she insisted, pulling on his shirt in an effort to drag him closer.

The time for humoring her was over. Grabbing her wrist more firmly, Mercury pried it from his shirt and dropped it carelessly onto the mattress. He swiveled on his heel and headed to the door without another word, fully expecting her to lose her battle to stay awake before he even stepped out into the hall.

Of course, he would be proved wrong for the second time that night.

The call of his name had him pausing to look back to the bed, where Neo was now fully sitting up, a heavy pout on her lips and her disheveled hair officially with a mind of its own. He began to tell her to lay back down when she started crawling towards the end of the bed, probably with the intention of stopping him or following him again. However, her heavily sleep addled mind took some of her coordination from her and Mercury could only liken her movements to a newborn fawn learning to use its gangly legs.

It was this reason that Mercury had to dart back to the bed to save Neo from busting her head open on the concrete floor of his room when she misplaced her hand on the curved end of his bed, nearly toppling face first over it.

"Fucking idiot! Would you just get in bed and _stay there_?"

Neo paid no mind to the insult thrown her way, instead becoming more preoccupied in finding every single way to wrap her person around his. "Hold me."

Mercury watched her struggle with a detached interest, standing there unmoving as Neo tried to find holds to keep her upright on his body. "Since when have you gotten so clingy?"

Neo's leg slipped from his waist again and she emitted a frustrated whine, bouncing on the bed to prop her leg back up there in a desperate attempt to straddle him. " _Hold me_!"

Mercury dragged a hand down his face, hardly fazed by the tiny girl jumping onto him physically-wise. However, he was very well aware that even as tired as Neo was she would retain her stubborn nature and that if he didn't give into her demands she would keep at it all night between her little bouts of sleep. In the end there was no harm done to him really and Neo would be the only one who would end up with bruises or the like, so if he really wanted to he could let her do whatever and it'd be no skin off his back.

But that was his old mindset. Ever since he formed this...bond with the tri-colored girl he found himself more concerned over her wellbeing and as tempting as the thought was to be selfish and keep the night to himself, he didn't like thinking about what extremes Neo would go to to get what she wanted and what that would result in on her behalf.

This whole "caring for others" thing was becoming a real thorn in his side.

Giving up on the notion of leaving that room for the rest of the night, Mercury reached down and picked Neo up again, giving her the support she needed in order to wrap her legs around his waist and rest her head on his shoulder. A small grin betrayed him when he heard Neo hum in contentment, but luckily for him he wouldn't have to pretend it never happened because she didn't see it.

He laid them both in his bed - him laying on his side with Neo curled into his chest, using his arm as a fleshy pillow. Now that she had finally gotten her way Neo fell asleep without resistance, her breaths slow and warm against his collar. Mercury threaded his fingers through her matted hair for awhile, the motion and feel of her soft locks against his rough hands relaxing and mesmerising, and he was able to pass the time quickly enough with just that.

In fact, kn no time at all, the grey light of daybreak slipped through his closed blinds, washing his room in a dull, neutral light that signaled another night gone and another day beginning. And unlike most people, Mercury didn't feel fatigued in the slightest, his body just as alert and awake as it had been yesterday. If he had the desire to he could run a lap around the entire city of Vale and still have enough energy to rob a dust shop or kill a man.

Yet he remained in bed, holding his small girlfriend into the early hours of the day, combing his fingers through her unruly hair. And as the sun continued to rise and stir into motion the world around them, he felt something he rarely felt, something even more rare than the exhaustion that prompted many to sleep the night away.

He felt content.

* * *

 **A/N:** And this is how I shall end 2015. With the trash ship.

Finally got a fic out for these two and I'm so happy with myself. Sorry if I got OOC at any point but I kept imagining Neo being adorable and it kinda got away from me from there. To be honest, I kinda got this idea from something I used to do as a kid (and still occasionally do when I'm sick). I used to sleep/take a nap/whatever and when I woke up I'd get really lonely so I'd go to wherever my parents were, lay down in some random place just to go back to sleep.

I know that normally I have a habit of using song lyrics to top of my fics and I was listening to _Everlong_ by The Foo Fighters while writing this and was gonna use that but I looked up the lyrics and found the little part he whispers and was like "whoa never heard that before" but for some reason it fit to me so I used that instead of my usual thing.

So for those of you who don't know I have a set up and it would help out a lot if you could pledge to me. Even $1 could mean the world to me. I never upload more than 4 fics a month (if that even) so it wouldn't be expensive and you'd get the privilege of reading all my fics 1-2 days earlier than everyone else! The link to my is on my profile for those who want to help out.

For those who don't think they could pledge or want something more specific, I am also doing commissions! Just go to my page and the link for that will be up there too. Those are first come, first serve though!


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